The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Book II: An Inappropriate Gathering, Chapters 5–8

Book IV: Strains, Chapters 1–7

Summary—Chapter 1: In the Servant’s Quarters

The narrator tells the story of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov’s
servant Grigory, who briefly cares for each of the three Karamazov brothers
when they are young. Grigory’s wife gives birth to a child with
six fingers. The child dies two weeks after it is born. The night Grigory
buries it, his wife hears a baby crying in the distance. When Grigory
goes to investigate, he discovers a newborn child lying next to
a young girl, who has just given birth and is dying.

Summary—Chapter 2: Stinking Lizaveta

The girl whom Grigory sees giving birth is Lizaveta, often
called “stinking Lizaveta.” Lizaveta is extremely slow-witted and
cannot talk. The people of the town are appalled that someone has
seduced this helpless young girl, and they agree that the only man
vile enough to do so is Fyodor Pavlovich. Grigory and his wife adopt
the baby, and Fyodor Pavlovich names him Smerdyakov.

Summary—Chapter 3:
The Confession of an Ardent Heart. In Verse

Alyosha leaves the monastery, as he has been
ordered to do by both Zosima and his father. A wealthy gentlewoman
friend of the Karamazovs, Madame Khokhlakov, has given Alyosha a
note from Katerina, Dmitri’s abandoned fiancée, asking him to visit
her. Somewhat nervous about the prospect, Alyosha sets off for Katerina’s
house before returning to his father’s. Alyosha assumes that he
will not see Ivan or Dmitri at Katerina’s house, though he thinks
he would like to talk to Dmitri before he sees Katerina. Taking
a shortcut to Katerina’s house, he is surprised by Dmitri, who intercepts
him on the path.

Summary—Chapter 4:
The Confession of an Ardent Heart. In Anecdotes

Dmitri relates his history with Katerina to Alyosha. Dmitri
first met Katerina when she was the daughter of the commanding officer
of a camp where Dmitri was stationed as a soldier. Katerina ignored Dmitri
until he attempted to trick her into sleeping with him by offering 4,500 rubles
to pay off an obligation of her father’s. As he began to
put his plan into motion, he was suddenly overcome with self--disgust,
and, looking at the beautiful, innocent Katerina, decided to give
her the money without even trying to seduce her. When she inherited
a large amount of money from a relative, she offered to marry Dmitri.
But when they returned to Fyodor Pavlovich’s town, Dmitri fell swiftly
for Grushenka. He even stole 3,000 rubles
from Katerina in order to finance his debauchery with Grushenka.

Summary—Chapter 5: The Confession of an Ardent Heart.
“Heels Up”

Dmitri asks Alyosha to tell Katerina that the engagement
is officially off. He also asks Alyosha to procure 3,000 rubles
from their father so that he can pay Katerina back and ease his
conscience. Dmitri knows that Fyodor Pavlovich has 3,000 rubles
readily available because Fyodor Pavlovich has assembled that very
sum of money in the hopes of buying Grushenka’s affections.

Summary—Chapter 6: Smerdyakov

Alyosha goes to his father’s house, where he finds his
father drinking. Ivan sits by Fyodor Pavlovich disapprovingly. Smerdyakov
and Grigory are arguing, and Ivan and Fyodor Pavlovich are listening
in on their argument. Smerdyakov is a sullen and gloomy young man who
despises everyone in the house, including his adoptive parents. He
works as a cook for Fyodor Pavlovich. Most of the household considers
him a responsible person despite his churlish attitude, because
once, when Fyodor Pavlovich lost 300 rubles
in a drunken stupor, Smerdyakov found and returned the money to
him.

Summary—Chapter 7: Disputation

Grigory and Smerdyakov are arguing over whether it is
morally acceptable to renounce one’s faith in God if doing so would
save one’s life. Smerdyakov says that it is, because no one has
perfect faith. He says that no one has faith enough to believe that,
if he asked a mountain to move, God would move the mountain. Therefore,
Smerdyakov says, no one should die for the faith that he does have.
He says that a person who renounces his faith to save his life can
repent for his sin later. Though he is arguing with Grigory, he seems
to be directing most of his attention to Ivan, and he seems to hope
that Ivan will approve of his reasoning.

Summary—Chapter 8: Over the Cognac

Fyodor Pavlovich is soon bored with his servants’ quarrel,
and he dismisses them. He asks Ivan about his religious belief,
and Ivan says that he does not believe in God or in the immortality
of the soul. Alyosha defends religion, claiming that God does exist
and that the soul is immortal. Fyodor Pavlovich is quickly bored
of this debate and instead of furthering it, he begins to taunt
Alyosha about his mother. He attacks her religious faith and describes
her seizures, and Alyosha grows so upset with this attack that he
has a seizure himself. Ivan angrily reminds Fyodor Pavlovich that
he and Alyosha have the same mother—Fyodor Pavlovich has forgotten
that they are both the children of his second marriage. Suddenly,
Dmitri comes into the room, screaming at his father and insisting
that Grushenka is hidden in Fyodor Pavlovich’s house.

Summary—Chapter 9: The Sensualists

Dmitri runs through the rooms trying to find
Grushenka, and when Fyodor Pavlovich accuses him of stealing money,
Dmitri throws his father to the ground, threatens to kill him, and
runs out of the house. Alyosha and Ivan tend to Fyodor Pavlovich’s wounds
and put him to bed.

Summary—Chapter 10: The Two Together

Alyosha visits Katerina at Madame Khokhlakov’s
house and is surprised to find that Grushenka is also there. Grushenka
has just promised Katerina that she is going to leave Dmitri for
a former lover, and Katerina will have him back soon. Katerina
is grateful and overjoyed, but when she tells Alyosha what has happened,
Grushenka insults her and says that she may decide to stay with
Dmitri after all. On his way out of the house, Alyosha is stopped
by a maid, who gives him a letter from Lise.

Summary—Chapter 11: One More Ruined Reputation

As he returns to the monastery, Alyosha is again stopped
by Dmitri, who laughs at the report of Grushenka’s behavior. Suddenly remorseful,
Dmitri then tells Alyosha that he is consumed by self-disgust. At
the monastery that night, Alyosha learns that Zosima’s health is
rapidly deteriorating, and Zosima is near death. Alyosha decides
to remain with Zosima, whom he loves like a father, instead of returning
to help with his family’s conflict. He reads Lise’s letter, which
contains a confession of her love for him. She writes that she hopes
to marry Alyosha one day. Alyosha laughs happily, says a prayer
for all his troubled loved ones, and, after such an eventful day,
falls into a deep sleep.

Analysis: Book III: The Sensualists, Chapters
1–11

The Brothers Karamazov is a systematically
ordered novel. Each of the story’s twelve books chronicles a specific
phase of its development and approaches its narrative from a specific
angle. Book I gives the novel’s background, detailing Fyodor Pavlovich
Karamazov’s past and the three brothers’ childhoods. Book II deals
with the meeting at the monastery, outlines some of the novel’s
major philosophical conflicts, and introduces us to the source of
conflict between Fyodor Pavlovich and Dmitri—their rivalry for Grushenka. Book III
finally introduces the town in which the main portion of the novel’s
action takes place and presents a firsthand view of the situation
between the main characters, as opposed to the secondhand views
presented by Fyodor Pavlovich, Rakitin, and Dmitri in Book II. Significantly,
Book III presents the narration from Alyosha’s perspective for an
extended period of time. Although the narrator describes Alyosha
as the “hero” of the novel, he has been only a minor participant
in the story so far.

One of The Brothers Karamazov’s major
arguments is that Alyosha’s nonjudgmental love of humanity improves
the lives of the people with whom he interacts. Specifically, he
bridges the communication gap between Dmitri and Katerina, provides
hope and love to Lise, and tends to Fyodor Pavlovich after Dmitri
attacks him. Dostoevsky repeatedly shows how Alyosha is impervious
to the conflicts and built-up hatreds of the other characters, and
how his soothing, relieving presence encourages peace and resolution between
them. Zosima’s understanding of Alyosha’s capability to do good
is presumably what leads him to send Alyosha out of the monastery
and back into the world. Although that decision is a mystery in
Book II, in Book III it becomes clear that Zosima’s motivation is
to allow Alyosha to do good in the world. Alyosha works to bring
Zosima’s ideas to fruition in the real world and exemplifies the novel’s
moral standpoint. Alyosha represents not only the simple, loving
religious faith described by Zosima, but also the power of that
faith to do actual good in the world.

Dmitri represents a combination of the ideas that drive
Alyosha and Fyodor Pavlovich. He has Fyodor Pavlovich’s inclination toward
Epicurean sensuality and Alyosha’s inclination toward morality and
faith. When Rakitin accuses Dmitri of having the same sensualist
greed and lust as Fyodor Pavlovich, Dmitri reveals his deep-seated
disgust with his own behavior. The fact that he hates himself for
treating Katerina poorly makes him morally superior to Fyodor Pavlovich.
It is difficult for us to imagine Fyodor Pavlovich feeling similar
remorse. Additionally, the story about Dmitri’s abandoned attempt
to blackmail Katerina into sleeping with him reveals a level of
moral concern that is also lacking in Fyodor Pavlovich. Dmitri begins
to emerge as the person Zosima recognizes him to be from the beginning:
a troubled, confused young man, driven to sin by the power of his
passions, but struggling to live by his conscience.

The story of the birth of Smerdyakov, chronicled in the
early chapters of Book III, reveals the extent of Fyodor Pavlovich’s
disregard for moral laws. His seduction and possible rape of a helpless idiot
girl, combined with his reprehensible treatment of the resulting child,
reveal the worst consequences of a life lived with no conception
of good and evil. This depraved existence is the sort of life Ivan unhappily
sees as the logical course of action for a man who does not believe
in God. The twisted, unpleasant Smerdyakov, cursed with epilepsy,
becomes a symbol of Fyodor Pavlovich’s deformed life, the illegitimate
son’s mean temperament and unhealthy body resulting directly from
his father’s wicked behavior. The contrast between Alyosha and Fyodor
Pavlovich illustrates the superiority of a life of faith and love
over a life of doubt and selfishness.